English and Hindi poetry and prose, published as well as experimental. Book reviews, essays, translations, my views about the world and world literature, religion, politics economics and India. Formerly titled "random thoughts of a chaotic being" (2004-2013).

Friday, January 01, 2016

FICTION IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION -- (6): South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami, The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, Therese Raquin by Emile Zola, Fountain and Tomb by Naguib Mahfouz, Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, Life's Good Brother by Nazim Hikmet [translated from Turkish by Mutlu Konuk Blasing],

NOVEL / FICTION IN ENGLISH (11):Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, 41 Stories by O Henry,Native Son by Richard Wright, Anthills of the Savannahby Chinua Achebe,The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers,Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott, Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill, Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes,The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, ENGLISH POETRY (10)

POETRY IN ENGLISH (8): A Street of Clocks by Thomas Lux, Mystery, So Long by Stephen Dobyns, The Emperor of Water Clocks by Yusef Komunyaka, To the Left of Time by Thomas Lux, Tracer Particles by Allison Joseph, Neon Vernacular by Yusef Komunyakaa, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Selected Poems by W. B. Yeats,

POPULAR SCIENCE / ECONOMICS (1):(A History and Philosophy of Fluid Mechanics by G. A. Tokaty)NON-FICTION - OTHER (4):(I am OK, You are OK by Thomas A. Harris), The Ode Less Traveled by Stephen Fry, My Kumaon by Jim Corbett, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi,

Favorite reads of the year 20161. Life's Good Brother by Nazim Hikmet: The novel set in early twentieth century is similar to Nazim's great work Human Landscapes: multiple characters and stories, knitted together across multiple decades, the narrative goes back and forth in time with relative ease. 2. Native Son by Richard Wright, 3. Anthills of the Savannahby Chinua Achebe,4.The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, 5. Neon Vernacular by Yusef Komunyakaa,6. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklinby Benjamin Franklin7. Jhoota Sach: Desh ka Bhavishya by Yashpal,

Vivek is a published poet. He reads & writes in Hindi and English. His poetry and essays in English are published in Poetry, Atlanta Review, The Cortland Review, Kartika
Review, Bateau, Muse India, Reading Hour, etc. He contributes columns and verses to Divya
Himachal (Hindi newspaper in India). Vivek's first collection, "Saga of a Crumpled Piece of
Paper" (63 poems, English, Writers
Workshop, Calcutta) was published in 2009.

Vivek spend his childhood in Himachal Pradesh and undergraduate years in IIT Delhi. He pursued a doctoral degree at Georgia
Tech, Atlanta (2003-2008) and he was a postdoctoral research associate in
Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge (MA) (2008-2012). He currently resides in Chicago.